• We will be authentic. In a world of hyper-reality, themed environments, false celebrity, and fake experience, exiles will live out the promise of being honest, genuine, and real.
• We will serve a cause greater than ourselves. Exiles will not throw themselves headlong into the standard operating policy of the empire by being primarily concerned about their own needs. They will band together to fashion communities of love and service.
• We will create missional community. Exiles will hold out the promise that it’s possible for humans to unite with others, offering their individual gifts and learning from each other, while committing to a common task.
• We will be generous and practice hospitality. Beyond conventional hospitality, exiles will put themselves at the service of the hungry and the needsy.
• We will work righteously. Exiles promise to do everything, including the most secular work, as an expression of their being sent by God into the nooks and crannies of the host empire.
(Frost, 2007 p. 81)

Trying to be authentic in a world of fakers is, for many, harder than avoiding pornography, drugs, or abortions. Why is the church so obsessed with these issues and yet so wholly uninterested in critiquing its own capitulation to hyper-reality – Teflon facades, Max Headroom-like televangelists, million-dollar smiles. (Frost, 2007 p. 83)

We’re used to being told that everything tastes better, feels better, looks better, thanks to this new product – even if that new product happens to be Jesus (Frost is talking about how we reduced Jesus to a slick sales pitch). We’re used to taking the pretense at face value. (Frost, 2007 p. 83)

My chief interest is that we see a flourishing of myriad new Christian faith communities that embrace the following six values:
• To seek an approach to spiritual growth that values inward transformation over external appearances
• To value a spirituality that seeks not to limit our God-given humanity, creativity, or individuality; to value diversity and difference over conformity and uniformity
• To enjoy from-the-heart, honest dialogues and avoid relationships marked by superficiality and hidden agendas
• To strive to be completely honest with God and appropriately transparent with others about our inmost thoughts, hopes, dreams, emotions, shortcomings, failings, transgressions, struggles
• To seek to welcome back mystery and paradox over easy explanations; to live with questions that have no easy answers
• To work to honestly recalibrate our lifestyles, diets, spending patterns, and commitments to reflect our hope for a more just, equitable, and merciful society
(Frost, 2007 p. 100-101)